Perhaps the best known of these is the Big Banana, located in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. Other big fruit artworks include the Big Apple (Donnybrook, Western Australia) and the Big Pineapple (Nambour, Queensland). Big animal artworks include the Big Merino (Goulburn, NSW), the Big Lobster (Kingston, South Australia), the Big Bull (Wauchope, NSW), and - up in Australia's far north - the Big Crocodile (Jabiru, Northern Territory).
Historical figures given the big treatment include the Big Ned Kelly, a monument commemorating Australia's most famous outlaw (Glenrowan, Victoria), and the Big Captain Cook (Cairns, Queensland). Australia's "big things" have attracted a lot of attention among commentators, sometimes causing a wry smile, sometimes harsh criticism.
In his travel book, In a Sunburned Country, the ever-humorous Bill Bryson writes: "Give [Australians] a bale of chicken wire, some fiberglass and a couple of pots of paint and they will make you, say, an enormous pineapple or strawberry or, as here, a lobster." He describes the 56-foot mammoth statue known as the Big Lobster as reminding him of "the leftover props from a 1950s horror movie." Some tourism writers and cultural commentators criticize these large artworks quite severely, labelling them as gross, blots on the landscape, or tourist traps.
Some of these writers attribute "big statue" construction to the desire of well-meaning but unimaginative bureaucrats and business entrepreneurs to attract foreign and domestic tourists to otherwise unremarkable towns. These same people, they argue, have tended to create with their big statues an often dumbed-down and sanitized version of Australia's industries, history and culture. Others point to a kind of edifice complex, where the locals are blind to the abundance of truly great natural wonders around Australia and prefer to build somewhat tacky theme parks to attract the tourist dollar.
Many would point to the overpriced souvenirs, refreshments and tour tickets that certain of these attractions sell to tourists who stop by for a photo opportunity. Yet it is undeniable that some of these "big" tourist artworks and their surrounds are carefully planned and well executed enterprises which succeed in drawing in a somewhat jaded public and educate them, while entertaining them, about the local industries, agricultural products, history, and everyday culture.
The Big Banana, for example, offers, apart from a free walk-through of the Big Banana statue, an interesting "banana experience" theater that gives visitors a quite detailed, if brief, introduction to bananas and the banana industry. In addition, visitors can take a short tour of the adjacent plantation and taste bananas, banana sweets and smoothies. For the more serious visitors to towns around Australia there are lengthy farm and factory tours, large museums, informative lectures, original historical sites, and carefully constructed replicas. Many of these are run by industry associations, academic institutions, heritage bodies, or local historical societies.
But would those more academic and serious alternatives appeal to ordinary tourists and those with limited time and interest? The answer can perhaps be seen in the fact that thousands of individual tourists and coachloads of travelers continue to come day after day to see the "big" statue attractions.
Perhaps the real question should be: are these "big statue" attractions accurate portrayals of Australia's industries, historical events, and everyday life - or merely glamorized, sanitized and commercialised versions of the reality? And, if they are not accurate, how can they be improved?
Further Information: For some interesting pictures of the Big Banana and other "big" statues in Australia, visit http://www.australiaforvisitors.com/big-things-in-australia.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Wagner
No comments:
Post a Comment